First
making an impression on international audiences with her role
as the sweet, virginal Hero in Kenneth
Branagh's 1993 Much Ado About Nothing,
pale-skinned, fine-boned British actress Kate Beckinsale
has since stepped beyond period pieces to prove that she is
anything but a fragile English rose.

The daughter of a BBC casting director and famed television
actor Richard
Beckinsale (known for roles on Porridge and Rising
Damp), Beckinsale was born July 26, 1973. After her
father's death from a heart attack in 1979, the actress was
raised by her mother. By her own account, Beckinsale's
childhood and adolescence were fairly troubled, marked by
struggles with anorexia. Beckinsale decided to follow in her
father's acting footsteps while still a teenager, and in 1991
had her major television debut in Once Against the Wind,
a World War II drama in which she played Judy
Davis' daughter. The same year, Beckinsale enrolled at
Oxford to study French and Russian Literature, and pursued her
education until committing herself full-time to acting.

In 1993, while still a student at Oxford, Beckinsale was
cast in Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. Her
supporting role was a memorable one, winning the actress a
limited amount of recognition amongst American audiences, but
it was not until 1995, when she starred in John
Schlesinger's adaptation of Stella Gibbons' Cold
Comfort Farm, that her wattage began to increase, at least
in arthouses everywhere. The film, which was initially made
for BBC television, proved to be a modest hit, bringing in
respectable box office and glowing reviews. Beckinsale
followed the film's success with another two years later,
starring as an altruistic con artist in the quirky romantic
comedy Shooting
Fish. The film was an unqualified hit in its native
country, becoming the third-highest grossing film in England
for 1997. The same year, Beckinsale further increased her
visibility with the title role in A&E's Emma.

Beckinsale next graced American movie screens in Whit
Stillman's The
Last Days of Disco (1998). She received good reviews
for her portrayal of a cool and catty WASP college graduate
(for which she assumed an American accent), although the movie
itself met with a deeply mixed reaction. The following year,
Beckinsale, in addition to giving birth to a daughter
(fathered by long-time boyfriend Michael
Sheen), starred in her first big-budget Hollywood
feature. Playing opposite Claire
Danes in Brokedown
Palace, the actress portrayed an American girl who,
while on vacation with best friend Danes in Thailand, gets
caught with heroin and is sentenced to 33 years in a Thai
prison. -- Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide

Questions? Comments? Something you would like to share with others relating to Pearl Harbor? Contact Us!